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Conference chairs

Bal Virdee

Bal Virdee is Director of Centre for Communications Technology in the School of Computing and Digital Media at London Metropolitan University.

Prior to becoming an academic he has worked in industry for various companies including Philips, as a R&D Engineer, and at Teledyne Defence & Space as a Future Products Developer in RF/microwave communications systems. He has also taught at several academic institutions.

Bal is currently a Senior Professor of Communications Technology. He serves in the Editorial Board of several international journals and has published numerous research papers.

His research, in collaboration with industry, is in microwave, mm-wave & Thz wireless systems encompassing the latest cellular and satellite technologies.

He is Chair and Executive Member of the IET's Technical and Professional Network Committee on RF and Microwave Technology. He is a Fellow of the IET and Senior Member of IEEE.

Kafil Ahmed

Dr Kafil Ahmed leads the Telecoms Radio Frequency Clearance programme in Network Rail. Besides, he has been driving a number of initiatives for rail innovations in the field of future railway mobile and satellite communications for trains and trackside applications.

He is also a member of Network Rail’s Telecoms Standards and Control Steering Committee (TSCSG) and led the development of Telecoms Clearance Standards.

From 2015 to 2018, Kafil served as the IET’s RF and Microwave Professional Community Network’s chair. He was a member of the IET’s Community Resourcing Committee and served as an executive committee member of the Electromagnetics Professional network between 2017 and 2020. He led and chaired the IET’s annual 5G conferences between 2014 and 2020.

Kafil is a charted engineer. In 2013, he obtained his PhD in microwave metamaterial filter technology. He published several papers in international journals and conferences. While working at Pera technology, He oversaw many FP7 and H2020 projects involving UHF RFID tagging, mm-wave radar systems, and high-power microwave systems.